Monday, August 6, 2007

It's a butterfly

Today one of the caterpillars that my coworker Mary has been raising hatched into a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly. Before it hatched the chrysalis started to get dark.We left the chrysalis for about 5 minutes and when we came back the butterfly had emerged.The husk of the chrysalis was still in place.After a little while we took it outside and placed it in a tree so that it could dry it's wings and then leave when it was ready.Mary has found 4 new caterpillar in her parsley so now we will be able to watch more butterfly grow.

Hi- that last picture of a caterpiller is NOT a black swallowtail caterpiller - they love to eat my parsley too, and they are a brilliant yellow, green and black striped creature. Your last picture is a black caterpiller with red spots and a band of white in the middle that also likes my parsley but I cannot identify it. Anyone have any ideas what this is?